Quantitative analysis of pneumatically driven biomimetic micro peristalsis

A pneumatically operated peristaltic micro pump can play an important role in nanoliter or picoliter scale fluid handling and delivery for biomimetic micro-scale peristalsis system as well as biological and chemical applications. Here, we first investigate the performance of peristaltic micro peristaltic system that are composed of pneumatically operated micrometer scale mechanical valve. We examined the effect of the number of pumping valves, from two to six, with variations of the operating frequency. The micro pumps with 200×100 μm² of valve area in 100 μm wide and 10 μm deep microchannels were mechanically actuated using a pneumatic pressure source and the optimum valve number and efficient operating frequency were found. This study provides an improved understanding of the working mechanism of microfabricated peristaltic pumps and delivers practical information for the design of robust and efficient peristaltic fluid manipulation systems with nanoliter or picoliter volumes of target samples.